Niki Tshibaka called a “clown” and a “grifter” by Alaska political podcaster
In February, my former classmate from the American School of Madrid, Niki Tshibaka, resigned from serving as the HR Director of the City of Anchorage, Alaska. Alaska Public Media reported that Niki’s resignation letter cited an “increasingly toxic, hostile, and demoralizing work environment.”
Last August, Alaska-based, political podcaster, Andrew Halcro, called Niki Tshibaka “a partisan clown.” At 41 minutes and 44 seconds into episode 64, Halcro tears Tshibaka a proverbial new asshole for his incompetence as a high-level municipal employee.
I encourage readers to listen to the podcast. Below you will find the transcript.
“If I were to ask you to name a single human resources director in the last 20 years at City Hall, I would imagine you’d be hard pressed to give any names. Even I don’t have the faintest idea who was the muni’s HR director at my six years at ACDA. But today, Mayor Bronson’s HR director has become a familiar public punchline: Niki Tshibaka.
Now, we know many facts about the Tshibaka family. We know they moved here from Washington, DC in 2019 sensing a Trump wave so that the Missus could lay the foundation to run against Alaska’s current US Senator, Lisa Murkowski. She was given the job by Governor Dunleavy as Commissioner of Administration and spent just enough time on the job and in the position whereby tax payers were obligated to pick up her moving costs.
I’m telling you what, ladies and gentleman, she must have had that date circled on her calendar. $81,000 was the cost of tax payers for her moving expenses. Meanwhile, Governor Dunleavy created a special job for the Mister. A special assistant to the assistant something in the Department of Education. Niki was making a cool $139,000 per year.
So, after the meter expired and the Missus could stick taxpayers with her moving expenses, so she could run against Senator Lisa Murkowski. Meanwhile the Mister, sensing it was once again time to switch grifts attached to his wife’s political aspirations, was named by Mayor Dave Bronson as the City Resources Director.
Okay, so what has Tshibaka accomplished? Well, it was just a matter of weeks before he ended up leading a rally in the Anchorage Assembly Chambers against COVID, where he publicly questioned the hospital reports on COVID patients.
He tried to illegally wedge Jim Weingardner in at the Heritage Land Bank. He was responsible for vetting numerous key executives which were later shown to be completely without qualifications of competence. I mean, Morgan, Morriss, Eledge, Grahm, Williams, and we haven’t even gotten to the best one.
Tshibaka has also proven himself to be a true idiot or he’s intentionally trying to cost taxpayers money through his political hijinks. After Tshibaka vetted Mayor Bronson’s pick of Judy Eledge to be the library director and the ensuing controversy, she was thus accused of creating a toxic, stressful, and chaotic work environment at the library, including allegations that Eledge told co-workers that “Alaskan Natives would be living in caves if it weren’t for the white man and his oil.”
Now, in a normal case of an employee complaint, the HR director would launch an investigation, talk to witnesses, and gather factual information about the complaint before making any kind of decision or recommendation. But not Niki Tshibaka, no, no. This dude went sideways immediately. He went out and got a custom made t-shirt that read “I stand with Judy.”
The person whose job it is to fairly and thoroughly investigate claims of employee misconduct, instead, opted not just to ignore the complaint, but publicly showed his support for Eledge with a novelty t-shirt.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is akin to a sports referee stepping on the field wearing one of the competing teams jerseys. In response, the picture of Tshibaka wearing the Eledge t-shirt has been introduced as evidence in a wrongful termination suit of the employee who investigated the original complaint against Eledge.
I mean, for the love of honesty and fairness, Niki Tshibaka, what the fuck is wrong with you?
But that’s not his only controversy. No, no. It’s not the only controversy that Niki Tshibaka and his incompetence has brought to Anchorage and Anchorage taxpayers. Last week, the City was shook by the news that Bronson’s Public Health Director, Joe Gerace, in a time of tense public health situations, had lied on his resume about the majority of his accomplishments. This was a catastrophic failure of the Bronson administration who failed to do even the most basic background checks.
During the hearing, and in private to confirm Gerace, Niki Tshibaka vigorously defended the attacks against Gerace, calling them inacurate and character assasination. Eight months later after the press had to do Tshibaka’s background checks for him, we know now that Gerace’s resume was predominately fabricated.
Meanwhile the HR Director, Niki Tshibaka, who was so willing to publicly cover for clearly flawed nominees, and who had so much to say in defense of both Eledge and Gerace, is now refusing to answer questions about how he failed to execute them with the most basic function of his job.
But I’ll answer the question for Niki Tshibaka. He is an unqualified political grifter whose ignorance and incompetence is costing taxpayers. If not for the security of his government salaries, he’d be hard pressed to make it in a private sector world where his employer would actually hold him accountable for such damaging failures. Tshibaka lacks experience, empathy, and honesty. However, he is just what you’d expect from a mayor who, after thirteen months on the job, has a 48 percent negative rating amongst voters.
Ladies and gentlemen, Niki Tshibaka is a partisan clown. But his tired act has never been funny. So maybe after the Missus gets dispatched by Lisa Murkowski we can finally rid our state of Alaska’s first family of political grifting.”
Niki Tshibaka and his wife, failed Alaska US Senate candidate, Kelly Tshibaka, are currently unemployed. According to Alaska Daily News, Kelly Tshibaka’s political organization, Preserve Democracy, is under investigation for violating ethics regulations.
